Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
(1)JackHuizenga'sanswertoHowdoyouprovethatanumberisatranscendentalnumber?Quora
NataliaNezvanova,SahalKaushik,DavidJoyce,DmitriyGenzeland30othersrecentlyupvotedthis
answer.
Howdoyouprovethatanumberisa
transcendentalnumber?
SHAREANSWER
ANSWERAUTHOR
JackHuizenga
WriteQuestionDetails
WantAnswers 25
Comments 2
MathProfessor,UniversityofIlli
FollowedbyTushantJha,KaushikIska,
and51more
Share Downvote
ANSWERSTATS
Unfollow 3.7k
JACK'SANSWER
Views
NextNotification(1more)
VIEW2OTHERANSWERS
5,236
Edits
JackHuizenga,MathProfessor,UniversityofIllinoi...(more)
83upvotesbyJitendraPrakash(PhDCandidate),DavidJoyce(Professorof
MathematicsatClarkUniversity),AnuragBishnoi(Ph.D.studentinMathematicsatGhent
University.),JoachimPense(GotadegreeinMathematics.),(more)
Transcendentalnumbertheoryisanotoriouslyadhocfieldthatiswoefully
underdevelopednotforlackoftrying,butbecauseitisextremelydifficult.In
thispostIwillexplainsomeofthemaintoolsandmethodsinthefield.
Search
Partofmypurposeforwritingthisansweristodrawattentionawayfromthe
answerbyAlejandroJenkinswhichisveryprettyandhasgeneratedalotof
views/upvotesbutisultimatelycompletelyflawed.Newtondidnothavea
proofthat istranscendental,andacorrectproofofthisfactdidnotexist
untilaround150yearsafterhisdeath.Thisisarelativelydifficultresult,and
1
Home
Write
Notifications
unfortunatelythereisnoknownsimpleargumentwhichcanexplainthe
transcendentalityof inafewlineswithoutcomplicatedequations.
Pleaserefreshthispagetoreceivenewupdates.
Forwhatfollows,firstrecallthatatranscendentalnumber
(orinthe
complexnumbersifyouprefer)isanynumberwhichisnottherootofa
nonzeroonevariablepolynomial
MOREFROMJACKHUIZENGA
Whatisthemathematicalexpression
which,whenplotted,lookslikeapair
ofpants?
Thereareacoupledifferentwaystogo
aboutthisproblem.Themainquestion
iswhetheryouwouldliketocomeupw...
(more)
Ifittakesme6hourstosolvea
problemthatmostofmyclassmates
solvein3hours,shouldIcontinue
withgraduateschool?
Mathresearchisnotaboutsolving
AddQuestion
Krutarth
problemsquickly.Itismuchmore
importanttohaveperseveranceandtobe
willin...(more)
WouldMathbesobeautifulifitwere
popularinanonbase10system?
Thebaseofthenumbersystemyouuse
hasalmostnorelevancetoreal
mathematics.Numbersthemselvesexist
without...(more)
withinteger(equivalentlybyclearingdenominators,rational)coefficients.
Almostallnumbersaretranscendental.Thisobservationisfairlyuseless
inpracticeitwillneverletyousay"thisnumberistranscendental"butitis
theeasiestwaytoseethattranscendentalnumbersexistatall.Observethat
thesetofallfinitelistsofintegersiscountablyinfinite,sinceitisthecountable
disjointunion
ofthesetsoflistsoffixedlength .Thustheset
ofpolynomialsinone
variableiscountable.Eachsuchnonzeropolynomialhasfinitelymanyroots,
sothesetofalgebraicnumbersiscountableaswell.Ontheotherhand,the
realnumbersareuncountablebyCantor'sdiagonalizationargument,sothe
complementofthesetofalgebraicnumbers(whichissimplythe
transcendentalnumbers)isuncountable.
Liouvillenumbers.Historically,thefirstexplicittranscendentalnumbers
wereonesconstructedby"bruteforce."OneexampleofaLiouvillenumberis
.
Itisnothardtoprovedirectlythatthisnumberistranscendental.Essentially,
theonesinthepowers
areeventuallytoofarapartfromone
anotherfortheretobecancellationwhenyoucompute
foradegree
polynomial .
http://www.quora.com/Howdoyouprovethatanumberisatranscendentalnumber/answer/JackHuizenga?__snids__=1028985173&__nsrc__=2
1/3
3/22/2015
(1)JackHuizenga'sanswertoHowdoyouprovethatanumberisatranscendentalnumber?Quora
Diophantineapproximation.Itiswellknownthateveryirrational
numberisalimitofrationalnumbers,forexamplebytruncatingthedecimal
Upvote 83
Downvote Comments 1+ Share 7
expansion.ThesubjectofDiophantineapproximationaskswhenareal
numberhasagoodrationalapproximation.Forexample,theapproximation
isfairlygood,inthesensethatthedenominator7isfairlysmallrelativetohow
goodtheapproximationis.
Roughlyspeaking,theirrationalitymeasure
ofanumber
isthe
largestnumbersuchthatthereareinifinitelymanyrationalapproximations
with
As
getsbiggerandbigger,thenumber canbemoreandmoreclosely
approximatedbyrationalnumberswith"small"denominators.Liouville
numbersare,bydefinition,thosenumberswithinfiniteirrationalitymeasure.
Irrationalitymeasurecanbeusedtoshowsomenumbersaretranscendentalby
theincrediblydeepThueSiegelRoththeorem,forwhichRothwontheFields
Medal:
Theorem(Roth).Algebraicnumbershaveirrationalitymeasure2.
Inparticular,theonlynumberswithirrationalitymeasurebiggerthan2are
transcendentalLiouvillenumbersareparticularextremeexamples.
Unfortunately,"almostall"numbershaveirrationalitymeasure2.Thus,ifyou
havesomeparticulartranscendentalnumberinmind,unlessyougotluckyit
willnotbepossibletoshowthatitistranscendentalbythismethod.Worse,it
isusuallyimpossiblydifficulttoevencalculatetheirrationalitymeasurefora
randomnumber,andthusthetheoremisnothelpful.
Forextremelyspecialnumbers,however,ideasrelatedtoRoth'stheoremand
itsgeneralizationtheSchmidtSubspaceThoremcanactuallybeusedtoshow
thatthenumbersaretranscendental.Hereisabizarretheoreminthis
directionforpeoplewhoknowwhatcontinuedfractionsare:
Theorem(AdamczewskiBugeaud).Let
suchthatthecontinuedfractionexpansion
bearealnumber
beginsinarbitrarilylongpalindromes.Theneither isaquadraticirrational
number(andthesequence eventuallyrepeats)or istranscendental.
Forexample,theexpansionofthenumber
beginsinapalindromeoflength2,6,and15,andifthesequenceisexpanded
inanappropriatewaythen willbetranscendentalbythetheorem.
Letmejustremarkthat,ascrazyasthisresultsounds,itisactuallyuseful.In
myresearchinalgebraicgeometryIneededtoknowsomenumberswere
transcendental,andtheyactuallyfellintothisveryrestrictedclassofnumbers
towhichtheAdamczewskiBugeaudtheoremapplied.
http://www.quora.com/Howdoyouprovethatanumberisatranscendentalnumber/answer/JackHuizenga?__snids__=1028985173&__nsrc__=2
2/3
3/22/2015
(1)JackHuizenga'sanswertoHowdoyouprovethatanumberisatranscendentalnumber?Quora
Summary.Ihopetohaveconvincedyouthatthereareahandfulofbeautiful
methodsforstudyingtranscendentalnumbers,whichunfortunatelyonlybarely
scrapethesurfaceofthemostspecialtranscendentalnumbers.Whenitcomes
toasufficiently"random"transcendentalnumber,wecurrentlyhaveessentially
nohopeofshowingthatnumberistranscendental.Theexplicitnumbers
whichcanbeshowedtobetranscendentaleitherhaveremarkablenumber
theoretic,analytic,orgeometricproperties,andintheabsenceofthesestrong
propertiesessentiallynothingcanbesaid.
References:
Transcendentalnumber
Liouvillenumber
Diophantineapproximation
ThueSiegelRoththeorem
Subspacetheorem
LindemannWeierstrasstheorem
AdamzcewskiBugeaud'spaper
ApplicationoftheAdamzcewskiBugeaudresultinSection4here
WrittenSat.5,236views. SuggestEdits
TopStoriesfromYourFeed
VishalGuptaupvotedthisanswerfrom2014
AbhinavSingi
BhargavRamand7more
ShobhitBakliwaland
AkashAgrawall
1h
upvotedthis2h
upvotedthisWed
HowarestudentsinIndian
collegestaughtprogramming?
Whataresomecommonformsof
sexismthatmenface?
Whatarethebestexamplesof
India'sjugaad,usedtosolve
everydayproblems?
AbhishekKumar
5.3kupvotesbyAishvaryaVishveshSingh,
ArjunSNath,BalajiganapathiSenthilnathan,(more)
Inacomputerlabexam,Igotaquestionto
printtheleafnodesofatree.Iwroteacode
whichwasrunninggood.Teachersaid"it's
sosmall."So,Iinsertedfewcommentedlines
hereandthere...
ReadInFeed
SrujanAkumarthi,Mediocrewriter,
SoftwareDeveloper,...
9kupvotesbyShobhitBakliwal,PrudhviTej,
SidharthKamboj,(more)
Ithappenedtodayinalocalrailwaystation,
Mumbai.Agirl,probablyaged1112,fell
downwhiletryingtowalkfastforthetrain.
Instinctively,Ilentherahandandpicked
herup,holdingher...
ReadInFeed
Anonymous
5.2kupvotesbyAkashAgrawall,Shobhit
Bakliwal,SathyanarayananChozhan,(more)
R.I.P.Mosquitoes.An
innovativeideathat
worklikeacharmto
keepmosquitoesaway
fromyouandisused
whilecampingorarea
withnoelectricityor
ReadInFeed
youcanuseifa
mosquitocoilssmells
http://www.quora.com/Howdoyouprovethatanumberisatranscendentalnumber/answer/JackHuizenga?__snids__=1028985173&__nsrc__=2
3/3